


Together forever

by Lunar_Berry



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, joelay - Freeform, merman au, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 04:31:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2137098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunar_Berry/pseuds/Lunar_Berry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joel's life is a mess and he just wants to end it all until Ray saves him, and Joel discovers that Ray is a merman...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together forever

The sun beat down and scorched the dry earth that Joel was sat on. The cracked dirt scrapped his hands but that didn't matter too much, nothing really did. He inhaled deeply, taking in the salty sea air and breathed out slowly, smiling in the sun. He was on top of a cliff, nobody would ever bother him here. He could sit and just _be there_. Not living up to any standards, not having to talk to anyone, not having to keep up appearances, though that didn't matter either because no matter how hard he pushed the dark thoughts to the back of his mind, no matter how much he convinced himself he was fine the words that were etched into his wrists plagued him. They taunted him, and only offered peace when they grew deeper. And now, with the crimson blood that was now dripping down his hands, his very life falling from him, he felt a strange feeling of relief, of emptiness, and the world that criticised his every move seemed so far away, so meaningless and so little that he laughed and threw himself back, arms spreading out on the crusty earth. Almost as instantly as he had done this he felt the pain creep back, the voices telling he wasn't good enough, he was never good enough, why would anybody want you? why did anybody need you? What are you alive for? You shouldn’t be alive, there is no point to anything you do. You mess everything up. Even the simple things, like dropping a spoon and you lose it, crying on the floor!  
“Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!” Joel's voice pierced the air like a knife as he rolled onto his side and clutched his head. What once was laughter was now just heaving sobs, tears rolled down his cheeks and he curled into a ball. He didn't know how long he was like that, he didn't care. Crawling over to the cliff edge and peering down at the dark water and sharp rocks he realised he could just end it. The pain, the fears, the feelings could all go away, and knowing that he didn't have to exist any more was comforting. Dragging himself up to his knees, then his legs he smiled up at the sky, he felt the sun and how warm it was, he felt the wind and how soothing it was. He breathed in and smiled, and laughed a shaky, teary laugh and then let himself go. His feet moved forward and found nothing, his heart beat faster than it had before as it if were beating as much as it could before he was gone. The wind whistled though his ears, but instead of fear he felt the air comfort him and embrace him. All those days of laying on a bathroom floor watching the blood wash away with the water, those days he couldn't eat for fear of doing it wrong, it meant nothing to him now and for once. Just once. He was happy.

 

Ray was lounging about. Just listening to the waves crash against the cliff face. No leg people came here, so it was the perfect place to be above water and not noticed. He lazily flicked his tail against the lapping water to wet it a bit and leant back on the shaded sand. Nothing beat being able to just listen to the water when it wasn't in your ears clouding everything, and the soothing waves reminded him of his travels around the world. He had met some really cool spinner dolphins while crossing the pefic waters, and he also met some really friendly orcas at the sea of the sun, who travelled with him to the great reef, before wishing him fare well and leaving for the frozen lands below. The huge variety of friends he made at the great reef was astounding, there was a festival everyday! Sometimes though, big grey things would come to take some of them away, and he later found out that these things were called boats, (not butts, he heard some sunfish joke about it) and that the leg people needed them for water. He had finally settled down on a small coast near off the altine waters. He had found a little cave which looped back up on itself from the water which revealed a reasonably sized area of air. The water was a like a little pool and the rock sloped up and round to form a bubble. He has marked it as his with some shells attached to some kelp to weigh them down, and went about making it his home. He had collections of shells and little weeds he had found on his journeys lining the water part of his cave, and his bed was made of corallina and rose weeds. He liked to say it looked nice, but he was still boring shelves into the walls with bones of the fish he ate, so it was mostly still a work in progress. While he was thinking this he was alerted to someone laughing, which at first sounded like the most amazing thing he thought he had heard, but he then immediately threw himself into the water. Peering up, he saw a dark figure falling, and only then did he listen to the sound the leg person was making. It sounded broken and happy at the same time and Ray wondered why this leg person was falling. He shook his head, and went to go underwater when he bumped into a rock spike. Putting two and two together, he dived down and looked up at the leg person's shadow and leaped out of the water, grabbing his waist and neck then pulling him above the water's surface. The leg person sputtered, so Ray swan to the shore then laid him down on the sand and pushed his legs out of the water.

“What the hell were you doing! You could've died, those were rock spikes! That was so stupid” Ray almost felt bad for shouting, but he was now pretty scared by what he had just done.

“What if” He coughed up some water and dry heaved before whispering “what if I wanted to”

Ray looked at the leg man. He had dark hair and dark eyes. Though his arms were red and scarred the were lean and pale but nothing compared to his greyish skin and darkish blue scales.

“Why would you want to die?” He lowered his voice and picked up the man's hand. There was no webbing between his fingers, which Ray found very strange. They were also very clean, whereas his were covered in sand and sea dust.

“I-I” The man breathed in deeply and continued “I just don't want to live. There isn't a point to it. It's not fun”

Ray though for a moment and felt very sorry for the man. He had now moved on to stoking the man's legs, he had never seen them up close before.

“Why don't you have webbing on your fingers? Why do you have legs?” He knew he shouldn't have asked but they seemed fascinating to him.

“I need hands without webbing to pick things up, to write, to move things. I need legs to walk. Speaking of which, why do you exist?”

“Oh, we always have, you leg people just didn't notice.”

“Leg people? You are a fucking merman and you call me a leg person, like, I dunno, I'm the weird one here?”

“Hey, you're weird to me too!” He paused and though about something for a second before he spoke again. “My name is Ray”

“My name is Joel” Joel put his hand in the air near him.

Ray looked at it for a second.

“Why are you doing that?”

“You shake it!”

“Sorry for not knowing what a leg person does with their arms! We don’t do that, we shake our forearms.” He grabbed Joel's forearm and held it for a second before letting go. “See? Much better”

“You don't shake it?”

“Why would we do that?”

“I don't know”

Ray looked at the man and huffed a little. It was custom to invite him to his home, but he didn't think leg people could survive the cold. They didn't have scales to keep them warm, they didn't have fins to swim with either.

“Hmmm, well, it's custom to invite you to my home, so you wanna see it?”

“Ray. I know you think it's a great idea and all, but I can't breath underwater.”

A second of silence surrounded them before Ray burst into laughter, then Joel laughed too.

“That’s too funny, you cannot be serious!” Ray's tail splashed a little in the water as he laughed, and this was the first time Joel actually looked at him. There were dark blue scales covered in grime all down his tail, but they still managed to shine. His fins were a lightish blue, and looked slightly skeletal, and they too were covered in some grimy stuff. It was also at this time he felt Ray touching his legs. He blushed a little, but propped himself up on elbows to fully look at Ray.

His dark eyes were covered by a clear film, and in his laughter he opened his mouth, showing razor sharp teeth. His hands were coated in some dark stuff and sand, and his grey skin looked rubbery.

Joel shifted hie weight onto one arm and cupped Ray's face with the other. Running his hand down the rubbery skin he felt some weird ridges, and a closer look revealed they were, in fact, gills.

“I would love to see your home, Ray. But how do we get there?”

“I guess I could breath air for you”

“Okay. Lets go. Right now” He felt like an impulsive child but this day seemed like a dream, the surreality of his situation dazed him.

“Okay”

Ray pulled him Joel onto his stomach and held onto his arms. Taking a deep breath, Joel closed his eyes and felt the water over his head, cold but weightless. He felt himself moving deeper and becoming colder, but the one thing that did hurt was the burn in his lungs. He gripped tighter onto Ray's arm and exhaled letting a stream of bubbles float above him. He didn't know how Ray was going to get air to him, so when their lips connected he jerked back a bit before breathing in. This air was salty but warm compared to the water around him. This happened a few times until he felt his head break the water's surface. He had begun to get used to the cold, but that didn't stop him shivering as he was pulled onto a flat rocky surface. Opening his eyes he expected the place to be very dark, but he was surprised to see a dark, but definitely blue light reflect of the water and light the cave. Ray moved over to him through the water with a reddish mesh which seemed to be red seaweed, and pulled it around his shoulders.

“I found some shiny things from a boat once. I could see myself in them and it made light, but only when I put them on the floor of the water cave and pointed the up here.”

“That would be a mirror, it reflect things which is why you saw yourself in the pieces of it. Also, it doesn't make light. Light bounces off it, that what reflecting is” He managed to say all of it without stuttering.

“That is amazing. What other cool things do you have?” Ray leant on the rocky shore of his cave, resting his head on his crossed arms and moved his tail about slowly in the water.

“Well, there are things called candles which burn and make light, and things called clothes, which is what I'm wearing. We have things called cameras which take pictures. Pictures are like a paper that looks like the thing you want.” He noticed Ray's eye had lit up, his smile was wondrous and once again showed his very sharp teeth. “Why do you have very sharp pointy teeth?”

“To eat of course! I have to hunt fish and eat them, I get hungry ya know. Bones don't get caught in them either, so I use them to make shelves. I heard some leg people talk about shelves once. I was a really big brown thing that had lots of leg people on it-”

“A pier. The brown stuff is wood”

“ooh, a pier- and anyway, there was a leg person with long hair and another with short hair. They were holding hands and had a small leg person! A small one! It made a lot of noise tough, so I don't think I like the small ones-”

“That's called a child.”

-I don't like them very much. The long haired one said they needed a shelf for freems-”

“Frames. Those are what you out pictures in”

-they sound fun, frames. The small one asked what once was and the short haired one said “They are what you put things on Emeely” and the long haired one said “Yeah, like a piece of ground but in the air”

“Emeely. Huh? I think you meant Emily”

“Emily. Yeah, that what it was! So I've used bones to make some ground in the air!”

“They look very well done Ray, considering you've never seen a shelf.”

Ray looked very proud of himself and jumped out of the water to sit next to Joel.

 

They spent many days together, meeting on the shore and talking or swimming, or going to Ray's cave. Joel spent all the spare time he had with Ray and the world always seemed brighter when he saw Ray's smile, or he swam with him. Eventually he found himself wanting to linger his lips onto Ray's, wanting to touch his arms, his back, to feel his muscles as he swam. Getting to know this man had made him so happy, listening to his stories and telling his own. He had decided that day when he met up with Ray that he was going to kiss him. Joel suggested that they go to Ray's cave so he held onto Ray's waist and tapped him lightly when he needed air. Instead of pulling back however, he had moved his hand to the back of Ray's head and help their lips together. He could tell Ray's was pushing him away but he held on for a second longer, and then felt the water rush past his head. He blinked his eyes open and they were above the water, and the cliffs seemed like hills. Ray's grey skin seemed almost pink and he was smiling.

“Joel Heyman, did you just kiss me?” Ray draped his arms over the older man but stll managed to keep them afloat.

“Yes, Ray Narvaez, yes I did and I would like to do it again”

Ray's cold lips met Joel's warm ones and he felt his heart flutter. This very beautiful leg person of all people wanted to kiss him, and he felt Joel run his hand down his back until they reached his scales, then hesitantly moved them down to his tail. They broke momentarily for air, their cheeks flushed and hearts beating together, before they kissed again. Joel traced patterns onto Ray's back and hummed into the kiss, swiping his tongue against the merman's lower lip begging him to open his mouth. Ray eagerly opened his mouth, their tongues connecting, dancing, making rhythms he had only dreamed would come true. The smell of Ray, the smell of salt and mint entranced him and held him in its grasp and strong arms held his heart prisoner. The waves lapped around them and rocked them together, pushing them together vowing to never let them part. They both pulled back, looking into each other’s eyes.

“I think I've have fallen for a merman, and I love it”

“I've definitely fallen for a human, and I really love it.”

“So... are we dating?” They both laughed, and Ray leant his head into the crook of Joel's neck.

“I guess we are, but its gonna be pretty hard with the whole human slash merman thing”

“We can get around it I'm sure” Ray shifted slightly to look up at Joel.

“There is a way actually...” He hesitated a bit before continuing. “Well, we can't actually reproduce. We are just, well, born. From the sea I mean, but we are also created. I was born, but I've met creation, he was really cool and creations are supposed to teach us human things but this guy didn't get t the end of the creation and he died. It's a kind of fatal thing, but it all depends of the person and if they can make it. There are no pills or seaweed we can give you to help you, but resting and eating and being taken care of for a few days s the best way to go about it.”

Joel was silent though all of this. He could actually live with him. He could be with Ray all the time.

“I mean, if you don't want to of course because you have...legs and stuff we could do things like we do now and I mean well-”

“I want to. I want to be able to be with you and talk to you all the time. Do it”

“It's going to really hurt! Your legs will fuse or I dunno fall of I've never seen it happen before! I only know how to do it, I don't know how you change and-”

“Ray. Calm down. Lets just do it. I don't care how much it hurts, I would do it if I knew how much it hurt. I want to do it for you”

Ray gulped a bit and flicked his pelvic fins (definitely a stress habit) then nodded.

“How about tonight? You have time to grab anything you want to keep”  
  
“I don't need anything when I have you. Tonight is good”

 

The moon glittered on the surface of the water and the cool air grabbed at his skin. Joel was on a rock, naked (of all things) and Ray was beside him half in the water with some green and red stuff, some silvery liquid a dead fish and a very sharp looking bone. Joel laid back and felt the rock scrape his back slightly.

“What happens now?” his voice broke the comfortable silence but still shook with anxiety.

“You eat the red and green mixtures. Then you make a cut and I'll drain the fish of its blood and pour the blood into the cut, and seal it with the whiteshine. After that you'll feel your lungs and eyes burn first, and that’s as much as I know. I've only ever seen the process of starting this, but I know that the only thing you need is food and rest.”

“Okay, lets do it”

Ray handed the green paste to him. It didn't taste like anything, but when he ate the red one he had an overwhelming urge to vomit. Ray lurched forward and clapped his hand over Joel's mouth while saying slowly “its okay, you swallow. You don't have to chew, just swallow.” With great difficulty Joel did then gasped when Ray dragged the sharp bone across his wrist. He hadn't cut them in a long time, so only the ghosts of the cuts showed a sign of what he had done to himself. He remembered explaining them to Ray as the merman had traced each line telling him he was silly and its such a silly thing to do. Ray had made him promise not to ever hurt himself again, and he stayed true to that.

Ray lifted the fish and pierced a hole into its side and an alarming amount of blood splashed onto his wrist on over the rock. It was only then that Joel noticed a lining of seaweed at the rock's base which was catching the blood, presumably to stop the attraction of unwanted attention. Then Ray poured the silvery liquid onto the cut which healed instantly, and as soon as that happened his lungs burnt. He was breathing in short shallow breaths which felt like someone was stabbing him with a hot poker. He felt himself being dragged somewhere but his eye were clamped shut. His feet tingled and his back ached.  
After a while the pain in his lungs died down, whereas the pain in his legs increased tenfold to the point where he was sure he was imagining the pain. Sometimes he could feel someone stroking his hair, others he could feel someone moving his jaw. His arms prickled and when he tried to move his legs he could only move them together. Thinking was hard so he slept to pass the pain, and focused on Ray. His bright eyes framed by long lashes, his sincere smile and his pale grey skin. His fins and his tail, covered with dark blue scales covered with sea dust (as he had once been told) his strong but thin arms and long fingers, everything about the most amazing person he knew. He loved him. His heart swelled up when he saw him or heard his laughter, and through the pain he knew Ray was worth it. Ray was worth everything.

 

The days passed and on the 9th  day Joel woke up completely changed. He looked around Ray's cave with confusion while Ray soothed him and told him everything was fine. He looked down to see an almost black fish tail, it looked slightly purple too. The cave wasn't as dark as it should've been, so he assumed his eyes were better too. It felt cool in the cave and not cold which was also surprising. He lifted his hands to Ray's face and looked in awe at the thing webbing between them. Ray pressed his fingers against Joel's.

 

“We can be together forever.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Geez, fish anatomy is a strange thing. Thanks to an anon from tumblr, I had fun with this. Send me prompt on tumblr through my ask, I'll get round to them eventually: the-mad-kings-butt.tumblr.com/ask  
> sorry about any spelling mistakes, my mind just fills in the blanks.


End file.
